By: Denis Droppa
Las Vegas, Nevada - BMW has invented a system that allows you to communicate with your car using hand gestures, much like playing a game of Charades.
With modern cars becoming ever more gadget-laden and networked, the challenge is in getting a driver to operate all the features with minimum distraction.
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BMW believes it’s onto something with AirTouch, on display at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which allows drivers to control entertainment, navigation and communication functions without having to physically make contact with a touchscreen. Instead, sensors record hand movements in the air.
AirTouch is being demonstrated in BMW’s so-called i Future Interaction concept car at the CES, a radical-looking topless i8 that hints at a soon-to-be-launched Spyder version of BMW’s hybrid sports car (it’s currently sold only as a coupé).
Gesture control technology debuted in the new BMW 7 Series that was launched overseas in 2015 (and will come to South Africa this year), which enables simple air movements of a finger to adjust the audio volume or accept phone calls.
AirTouch takes the concept a step further by allowing the display in a vehicle to be operated like a touchscreen without actually having to make contact with the surface. Sensors installed in the dashboard respond to hand movements in the air and permit touchless control of more functions.
DRIVING MODES
Once you’ve “waved” up a menu, tapping a button on the rim of the steering wheel activates the desired program. The passenger also has a button like this on the door’s side sill, allowing them to use one hand to navigate through the menu and the other hand to confirm inputs very quickly.
While it’s perhaps debatable whether waving your hand in the air leads to any less driving distraction, AirTouch is just one way carmakers are looking at making the human-machine interface more user friendly. It’s an outlook on the networked cockpit and the user interface of the future.
The concept car also offers three different drive modes – Pure Drive (driving yourself), Assist (assistance systems intervene actively) and Auto Mode (highly automated operation) – selectable at the steering wheel.
Star Motoring
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